Busy, busy, busy last month, with most of my time dominated by finishing up the most recent novel manuscript. With that out of the way, I was able to squeeze in a whirlwind family vacation down to Florida so we could hang with my sister and her family for a three-day engagement with the House of the Mouse. Now that we’re back, I’ve got a few days of messing about with smaller items on my To-Do List, as I eye next week to start writing on what (I hope) will be the next novel manuscript.

And there are a few other things seeking my attention, as well.

But before we can press forward, we pause a moment or two and review the month that was. So, here’s the May rundown:

Hearts and Minds – A Star Trek: The Next Generationnovel, set after the events of Headlong Flight. The book started hitting bookstore shelves last week, and officially went on sale this past Tuesday, May 30th in paperback, e-Book, and audiobook editions. It’s in the wild, folks!

Unidentified Tie-In Project – The main focus of my attention and energy the past couple of months. I delivered the manuscript on May 22nd, and I’m currently awaiting editor and licensor feedback. I’m not yet able to share any details, pending official announcements or whatever else is involved. More info once I’m given the go-ahead by the People In Charge.

“Recon” – Short story for If It Bleeds, an anthology tying into the Predator franchise. Writer/Editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt has commissioned 16 all-new tales featuring everybody’s favorite race of intergalactic big game hunters. The stories in this new collection will show Predators on Earth at different points in history, as well as taking their hunts to far-flung worlds. I received a copyedited manuscript back from Bryan on May 21st, and returned my corrections to him on the 27th. Next up? Typeset pages for review/proofing. If It Bleeds is currently slated for publication on October 17th.

Another Unidentified Tie-In Project – I signed a contract back on March 7th, and I delivered an outline to my editor on April 28th. I’m still awaiting editor and licensing feedback on this, as well, but I’m hoping to hear something in the next week or so. As with the other big thing on my plate, I’m not yet able to divulge anything in the way of juicy deets. Stay tuned!

Other stuff in the pipeline:

Maximum Velocity: The Best of Full-Throttle Space Tales – As the name implies, this will be a collection of the very best stories from the six-volume Full-Throttle Space Tales anthology series originally published by Flying Pen Press. The five editors from the original series – including moi – have come together to select what we think are the stories that best represent the anthologies, and this “Best of” collection is being published by WordFire Press. Whether this leads to all-new Full-Throttle Space Tales anthologies, remains to be seen, but here’s hoping! So far, the book remains on track for a June publication.

Hidden Universe Travel Guides – Star Trek: The Klingon Empire – Everything’s been laid out, and we’ve been taking care of final edits and tweaks. I was corresponding with my editor over the past weekend, helping to address a few dangling points before this one heads to the printer. I’m happy to report that Livio Ramondelli and Peter Markowski, who provided all of those amazing illustrations for the Vulcan guide, were able to work their magic for this new book. It’s currently set for publication on July 17th in trade paperback and e-Book formats. More details still to come!

Star Trek Adventures Role Playing Game – After working with the folks at Modiphius during last fall and early winter to provide backstory material that will help flesh out the game’s core rulebook as well as drive this new game’s “living playtest campaign,” I hadn’t been doing much as that part of the development and testing process got underway in earnest. But then I was contacted at the end of March about writing up some new material for one of the game’s supplemental source books. I’m still waiting to hear back about some details, but it looks like I’m going to have a bit more fun in this corner of the Star Trek sandbox.

And Another Unidentified Tie-In Project – After thinking this idea was dead, I was pleasantly surprised just before Christmas to hear from the editor to whom I’d pitched this thing. They told me they’d reconsidered going forward with it, and now it looks like we’re back on! I touched base with my editor on this a few weeks ago, and we’ll likely be talking about it during June at some point. If this goes forward, it’s gonna be hella fun, and I can’t wait to talk more about it. Mwuah-ah-ah.

Possible future projects:

Original SF novel concept – Something I’d started a while back, refreshed some older notes and added some new ones. Once I knock out the other outlines that are ahead of it in the queue, I’ll be continuing to work on fleshing out this concept so that I can approach at least one editor with it.

Original e-Book concept – I’ve been pondering an idea for a new series – something akin to the “men’s adventure” style books I loved back in the 80s and 90s. It would be a setting for which I could write shorter tales – novellas, likely – for e-Book distribution. It would be something of an SF-ish/action bent, with (I hope) lots of humor. Not quite campy, but definitely lighter in tone. This is still very rough at the moment, but it’s something I’d really like to get into once I (HAH!) get some free time.

June is going to be “interesting,” with kids out of school, a bit of travel on the docket, and hoping to say on course with various projects…including writing up pitches for books I’d like to tackle later in the year. We’ll see what happens.